Fire door apparatus



Oct. 1932- c. D. PATTERSON ET AL 1,834,824

FIRE DOOR APPARATUS F iled Jan. 20, 1950 a Sheets-Sheet 1' WITNESS ATTORNEY L c. D. PATTERSON ET AL Q 1,884,324

FIRE DOOR APPARATUS Filed Jan. 20. 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS WITNESS: ATTORNEY Oct. 25, 1932. c. n. PATTERSON ET AL 1,334,824

FIRE noon APPARATUS Filed Jan. 20, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 lamrzc'e fl Pa Ziersam Moria/'2 [1. M 0 are,

lNVENTOR ATTORN EYs Patented Oct. 25, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CLARENCE D. PATTERSON, OF JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, AND MORTON K. MOORE, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA; SAID PATTERSON ASSIGNOR TO SAID MOORE FIRE DOOR APPARATUS Application filed January 20, 1930. Serial No. 422,163.

"; mechanism is advantageous.

An object of the invention is to provide pressure operated means under the constant control of a. fireman whereby the doors can be opened and closed at will with minimum effort.

Another object is to provide means whereby the doors can be actuated by hand or both by hand and pressure of a fluid, with means associated with the hand operated mechanism 1 whereby the door can be maintained either partly or entirely open as long as desired.

A further object is to provide means for cushioning the closing movement of the door.

A still further object is to provide door operating mechanism which is simple and compact in construction, efficient in operation, and being formed of few working parts, requires the minimum attention.

Another object is to provide a single pivot pin for the pair of doors and on which the hand mechanism is pivoted and to make the pedal which controls the flow of fluid to the mechanism adjustable in length.

Another object is to provide mechanism which does not require any mechanical releasing or locking device to be manipulated in order to permit a change to be made from mechanical to manual control or vice versa, it being possible to make this change in the operation of the doors while the doors are at any point of travel during opening, while at rest, or while closed.

This invention also consists in certain other features of construction and in the combination and arrangement of the several parts,

' to be hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and specifically pointed out in the appended claims.

In describingtheinventio-n in detail, reference will be had to the accompanying drawings wherein like characters denote like or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and in which Figure 1 shows the apparatus in front elevation; Figure 2 is in side elevation; Figure 3 is a vertical section on line 3-3 of Figure 1; Figure 4 is ahorizontal section, on line 4-4 of Figure 1; Figure 5 is a perspective view of one of the doors; Figure 6 is a detail in section and elevation, and shows the valve at the lower portion of Figure 1.

In these views, the numeral 1 indicates the door ring which is adjustably connected with the fire box by means of the bolts 2 passing through the slots 3 in the ring.

Said ring v is formed with the flange 4 against which the doors 5 slide and hooks 6 are formed at the bottom of the flange for receiving the lugs 7 on the lower edges of the doors for preventing the doors from swinging outwardly. The

upper parts of the doors are formed with the substantially circular parts 8 through which the pivot bolt 9 passes, this bolt being threaded in a boss 10 formed on the top part of the ring. door overlaps the part 8 of the other door as the first part is offset from its door. The pivotal arrangement of the doors permit the doors to swing in a vertical plane away from and toward each other and in their lowermost positions the inner edges of the doors will abutand these edges are tongued and grooved. as shown at 11. A stationary piston 12 has a plate-like depending part 13 at its front which is connected with the base of ment 14 surrounding the bolts and being positioned between the wings and the projecting part of the ring. One of the wings is formed with a quadrant 17 and a latch member 18 has its circular part rotatably arranged on the outer end of the bolt 9 and held thereon by a nut 19, said circular part having a projection 20 thereon in which is pivotally arranged an end of a handle 21 which engages the quadrant and enables the latch member to be partly rotated on the pivot bolt to move the doors by hand. The latch part is shown at 22 and engages a projection 23 As will be seen, the part 8 of one,

' selves and the doors.

on one of the doors so that downward movement of the handle will cause the part 22 to engage the projection 23 and thus swing the doors to open position.

A movable cylinder 24 fits over the stabeing guided by the stationary piston, particularly good mechanical results are secured, under fluid pressure operation of the doors. The, doorswill drop to closed position by gravity. The notches in the quadrant will hold the handlein any one of a number of different positions so that the doors can be held'in fully open position or in party open position; A passage 26 passes through the piston with its lower end passing through the front of the base thereof and a pipe 27 is connected with the passage and with a valve casing 28. The casing is connected by a pipe 29 with a suitable source of fluid supply and the passageof the fluid through the casing is controlled by a spring actuatedvalve 30 so that'when the valve is opened, the fluid will pass from thecasing through the pipe27 and the passage 12 into the cylinder and thus raise the cylinder and thereby open the doors,

and this opening movement of the doors is secured without interference on the part of the hand operated means, as the projection 23 simply leaves the latch member 22, and due to the arrangement of the parts, it will be seen that the doors can be partly opened by hand and then fully opened by the pressure means. VVh-en the valve isclosed, the'fluid in 'the'cylinder will escape through the pipe 27 and the vent 31 in the valve casing, as the fluid can pass through the grooves 31 formed in the valve to reach the vent. The valve is moved to open position by the depression of a pedal 32 which rocks a shaft 33 and causes an arm 34 on the shaft to press upwardly the stem of the valve. As shown in Figure 2, thefoot part of the pedal can be adjusted longitudinally by placing a pin 35 in any one of a number of holes 36 in the arm of the pedal.

The doors are formed with the openings 37 and a baffle plate 38 having openings 39 therein is fastened to the rear part of each door by the bolt'j iO, the plates being spaced from the doors to form air chambers between them- From the foregoing it will be seen that by simply depressing the pedal, the valve will be opened and fluid will flow to the cylinder to raise the same and thus swing the doors to open position. When pressure is removed from the pedal, the valve will close and the fluid in the cylinder will vent through the hole 31 so that the doors will drop under the ment will be cushioned by the slow escape of the fluid from the cylinder. The doors can be moved to open poistion or to partly open position by swinging the handle 21 downwardly to cause the latch part 22 to engage the projection 23, which will. move the doors upwardly and as the latch part 22 is not connected with the doors, the doors can be opened by the pressure means without interference on the part of the hand operated means.

It will be seen that the device has but few parts and that the doors and the hand operated latch member are pivoted on the same bolt and that the foot portion of the foot pedal is adjustable as'to its length and that' there are no locking means to be manipulated in order to permit a change to be made from mechanical to manual control or vice versa and that the change can be made while the doors are at any point of travel during openbe made in the construction and in the combination and arrangement of the several parts, provided that such changes fall within the scope of'the appended claims.

What we claim is 1. A device of the class described comprising a door frame, a pivot member at the top of the frame, a pair of doors through the upper portion of which the p'ivotmember passes action of gravity, though their closing move- 7 It isto be understood that changes may so that the doors are supported for swinging movement toward and away from each other, a stationary piston supported from apart of the frame, a movable cylinder fitting over the piston, links connecting the cylinder with the 'top parts of'the doors, said cylinder constituting' a crosshead-like' connection between the links and doors, and means for introducing fluid into the cylinder to cause the same to move to a position to open the doors.

2. A device of the class described comprising a door frame, a pivot member at the top of the frame, a pair of doors through the upper portion of which the pivot memb'er'passes so that the doors are supported for swinging movement toward and away from each other,

a stationary piston supported from a part of the frame, a movable cylinder fitting over the piston, links connecting the cylinder with the doors, said cylinder constituting a crosshead-like connection between the links and doors, means for introducing fluid into the cylinder to cause the same to move'to a position to open the doors, and a valve for controlling the flow of fluid to the cylinder and a pedal for operating'the valve.

lib

3. A device of the class described comprising a door frame, a pivot member at the top of the frame, a pair of doors through the'upper portion of which the pivot member passes so that the doors are supported for swinging movement toward and away from each other, a stationary piston supported from a part of the frame, a movable cylinder fitting over the piston, links connecting the cylinder with the doors, said cylinder constituting a crosshead-like connection between the links and doors, means for introducing fluid into the cylinder to cause the same to move to a position to open the doors, a valve for controlling the flow of fluid to the cylinder, a pedal for operating the valve, and means for adjusting the length of the pedal.

In testimony whereof we aifix our signa' tures.

CLARENCE D. PATTERSON. MORTON K. MOORE. 

